Horses—The Story of Equus

Host Gabriel Byrne begins IMAX’s latest info-adventure: “Six thousand years ago we domesticated horses and brought them back from the edge of extinction. There are now more than 60 million in the world.” The film then follows the stories of three foals that are born on the same warm Australian spring night and sold at adulthood into very different lives. The Chestnut is trained as a racehorse. The Bay fails in the world of “eventing” to become a movie stunt horse. The Black, while being transported to a stud farm and a potentially more provocative episode, escapes into the wilds after a road accident and searches for a herd to join. The rather tame drama at hand is dwarfed by grandiose visuals and narration as we take a crash course in horse biology and behavior, the relationship between humans and horses and the influence and effect we have on each other. Written and directed by Michael Caulfield.